Casting Out Demons
It
was still night when I was awakened by someone knocking on my door, which
I opened to find Kristin looking somber. She said she had been awakened by a
demon inside of her, so a demon must have
re-entered her as she slept. The news was
disheartening but I didn't want her to be discouraged any more than she already
must have been. So I told her that it wasn't a problem as we will simply return
to the Korean church and have that youth pastor cast it out of her again.
When we returned to the Korean church very early the next morning and shared the news, the youth pastor said he wasn't surprised as after casting the last demon out of her, he had wanted to "seal" her so that the demons can't re-enter her. I didn't know what he meant by that but was disappointed that he hadn't done whatever he should have done to prevent this re-entry. But I trusted that he will cast the demon out of her again and then "seal" her for good this time.
The youth pastor had Kristin sit on the couch in the senior pastor's office and began to command the demon to come out of her while the senior pastor, his wife, some of the elders from the previous day and I prayed. He had cast out many demons the day before in about an hour, so I expected the one(s) that had re-entered her to be cast out in less time.
But an hour came and went. Whenever the youth pastor commanded the demon to leave, guttural noise came out of Kristin's mouth, along with saliva, and her thorax heaved. I wasn't sure if one demon was resisting being cast out or if many demons were being cast out one by one, but the battle continued. After a while, the senior pastor and then the elders and I joined the youth pastor in commanding the demon(s) to come out of her.
During one of the mini breaks we took to get water at the other end of his office, the senior pastor, who was soaked in sweat like the rest of us, said out of frustration, "Every time we take someone like this, it take every energy." I understood him to be saying that they get drained of energy whenever they engage in spiritual warfare. Then he looked at Kristin suffering on the couch, his eyes softened, and he said, "But what can we do? We have to take her." So he had told me to "bring her" not ignorant but fully aware of the burden that his invitation will incur, which made his invitation all the more loving.
As the morning wore on, the elders left one by one, apologizing to me, Kristin and the pastors, saying that they had to go to work. A little later, the senior pastor said he had to meet with his church members who have been waiting for him, but told me and the youth pastor to continue to minister to Kristin in his office, as he was going hold his meetings elsewhere.
I was so focused on Kristin thereafter that I didn't pay attention to much else, but did catch glimpses of the senior pastor's wife, who spoke minimal English but kept quietly entering and leaving the office to keep us supplied with water and tissues, which we needed for the copious amounts of phlegm and saliva that came out of Kristin's mouth as the spiritual warfare wore on.
By the end of the afternoon, Kristin, the youth pastor and I were exhausted. Kristin said some demons wore cast out of her but others remained. The youth pastor told us to go and have a good dinner, sleep well, and then return the next morning energized to battle again, so we did that the next day, and then the rest of the week.